In September, ridership increased citywide by 75 percent compared to the same month last year. In October, it rose by 61 per­cent.

Anderson said the change has been very successful, though sus­taining such a large increase so fast has caused a few growing pains.

“Right now, we’re handling it pretty well. Anytime you try to do something that’s a little innovative, there’s going to be a learning curve adapting to the new system,” Anderson said.

As it always has, the city will be billing the university for bus servic­es, so city taxpayers won’t be pay­ing for the students’ new privilege.

In a typical year, the university pays about $180,000, and the bill for this new service is estimated at $350,000, said David Cowan, facili­ties services director for MSU.

The students’ rides are not actu­ally free — about two-thirds of the service is paid for by a new, 75 cents per credit “green fee” paid by Minnesota State University stu­dents. The rest comes from residen­tial life and parking funds.

Students are happy to pay for the bus through fees and merely show their university ID cards to ride, said Soyal Shrestha, Minnesota State Student Association president. It has been especially popular with international and first-year students, who often lack vehicles.

The extra payments to the city also have expanded service, including a nighttime route to James Avenue.

The intense demand has led the Student Senate and the city to work together on making minor changes to service, too.

For example, a bus happened to drop off students only a few minutes before class, so the buses made minor changes so that students arrived about three minutes earlier, Shrestha said.

The city also revamped its routes in late August, so the increase in ridership may be partly caused by more convenient routes.

Anderson hopes the new routes and the change for MSU will get more people riding the bus for years to come.

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